Old chromebooks stopped working today??

[simpsonj]

I guess the shock of this comes from the fact that this is the first time that Google have implemented a change that has had but a hard stop on users using hardware. Microsoft stop sending out updates, but you can still use the device at your own risk. Apple will stop support, and it's a slow death as apps update onto the latest iOS. So thinking about it, I'm not sure any other company has ever completely bricked devices overnight from an update? Happy to be proven wrong, but I suspect this is where the anger comes from.

 

But I believe this was likely unintentional from Google. I've seen no mention of it in the Google Workspace Updates blog, and whilst they don't have to let users know about changes effecting EOL devices, I suspect if they did know this was going to happen, they would have announced it. Or maybe I'm just naive!

[Primus]

This is what they mean by unsupported and EoL - they've likely made a change on their backend, I'm sure they've tested this with a range of devices but how far back do you want them to go with their testing, are you realistically expecting them to test with EoL devices?

 

I'm not arguing for the sake of it, I'm shocked that you have been running EoL devices and are now up in arms because they've stopped running.

 

This is exactly why you don't run EoL devices in production - they'll likely work, maybe for ages, but they're going to eventually have some kind of issue and you're going to be completely out of luck getting support for them as they are EoL.

 

The devices people are talking about on here have run for 4 years beyond their EoL date - we are not talking about devices bricking on their EoL date.

[timbo343]

Just bare in mind the EoL dates have always been sold to us as the date they stop getting updates, not the date they suddenly stop working out of the blue. This is a purposeful and uncommunicated change from google.

 

I was also told this by a Google employee before they moved on. They basically said EoL devices can be used however they strongly advise against it and it's at our own risks. No part of the conversation said the devices will suddenly stop working.

[Primus]

I was also told this by a Google employee before they moved on. They basically said EoL devices can be used however they strongly advise against it and it's at our own risks. No part of the conversation said the devices will suddenly stop working.

 

"We strongly advise against it and it's at your own risk" - why do you think they might say that? Could it possibly be that once a device goes EoL it's completely unsupported and likely to have issues at some point?

[TwistedHelixis]

at our own risks

 

Surely one of those risks is the fact that after 4 years of not being in support, the device might no longer work, no?

Edited May 21, 2024 by TwistedHelixis

[TwistedHelixis]

TBH, as soon as any device becomes EOL, I remove it from the school. Running EOL invalidates any insurance for starters.

[Lucielou]

Any news from Google on this yet???

One thing I have noticed - if they have previously logged on they still can but no new users. Made a mistake by resetting a few devices and obviously now cant re enroll as now I’m a new user!!!

[timbo343]

"We strongly advise against it and it's at your own risk" - why do you think they might say that? Could it possibly be that once a device goes EoL it's completely unsupported and likely to have issues at some point?

Of course, but not once did they say it would be blocked - that's the difference.

 

For us it's not got to that stage... yet with some devices still working across the trust and it is just a matter of time.

 

Some schools thinking though are "dish out and forget" and haven't factored in an EoL replacement programme so they get a shock when it comes to the EoL period and we say these devices need replacing - bury heads in the sand springs to mind with the little to no money the schools have.

[jthompson]

I would expect that a device that far past EOL would have a encountered a number of issues, not all of which are necessarily going to be noticeable to the end user. Whilst they may have appeared to be fine the day before they bricked, they could well have been riddled with errors for a while already, with features not working under the hood (cipher suites moving on, etc). I should imagine that the risk of that increases as time goes by.

[NegativeKillDeath]

Of course, but not once did they say it would be blocked - that's the difference.

 

A side effect of how Chromebooks work. Where as with other OSes you'd see various functions cease to work on an outdated system in a gradual manner, e.g. OneDrive deprecated on Win7 or Chrome stuck on an old version. With Chromebooks because they are so heavily integrated with Googles infrastructure the thing that now doesn't work just happens to be the thing that you need to use the device at all. I can see similar happening in years to come with Win11 because of the forced MS account required to set it up.

[Roberto]

Of course, but not once did they say it would be blocked - that's the difference.

 

A quick, er, Google search tells me they published a lot of mealy mouthed stuff about how good their program is but I didn't find anything on what would happen post EOL... though I'm inclined to ask what you thought would happen. 4 extra years of use post EOL for a device that's entirely online is hardly bad.

 

Some schools thinking though are "dish out and forget" and haven't factored in an EoL replacement programme so they get a shock when it comes to the EoL period and we say these devices need replacing - bury heads in the sand springs to mind with the little to no money the schools have.

 

No one should be buying devices without thinking of how they will be supported in the future, including things like replacement planning.

[Primus]

Of course, but not once did they say it would be blocked - that's the difference.

 

For us it's not got to that stage... yet with some devices still working across the trust and it is just a matter of time.

 

Some schools thinking though are "dish out and forget" and haven't factored in an EoL replacement programme so they get a shock when it comes to the EoL period and we say these devices need replacing - bury heads in the sand springs to mind with the little to no money the schools have.

 

Did you genuinely believe they'd just keep running forever? Did the "your own risk" part really not make you think that there's a time to move on from these devices?

 

If no support means no support then how would Google know when a change would affect them without testing - that's Google providing further support by testing EoL devices.

 

This is where people can be "too helpful" - running Chromebooks 4 years after their EoL isn't reasonable. Schools are poorly funded it's true but if you keep old kit running they'll never replace it - we've had schools with 14/15/16 year old PCs that were horrendous and they complained about them all the time - we replaced them when they became part of our MAT and they then wanted them back "just to stick at the back of the room for kids to use". We said no and recycled them and we have a similar issue at the moment with our Win 11 replacement programme - people wanting the old ones to use elsewhere and we've had to explain that that would see us replacing the devices twice and obviously budgets are stretched.

 

The issues people are having with Chromebooks miles beyond their EoL is an effective illustration of why you shouldn't run EoL kit in production. If you do run EoL kit in production you shouldn't be surprised to walk into a storm one morning because it's all fallen over and you've got zero support.

[Net_Man]

I can see the points raised by both sides and I agree with both to a certain extent

 

I just wanted to say that, you can continue to use Windows 7 at your own peril so why not a Chromebook

 

I am not saying that is would be a good idea but just that people should be given the choice

[jthompson]

As I often say to people here, it's not about how many shiny new computers we have, it's about how many crummy old ones we have.

[JJonas]

is ChromeOS Flex not an option?

[3s-gtech]

I can see the points raised by both sides and I agree with both to a certain extent

 

I just wanted to say that, you can continue to use Windows 7 at your own peril so why not a Chromebook

 

I am not saying that is would be a good idea but just that people should be given the choice

Simply because Windows 8.1/7/XP will function perfectly well (once activated...) without an internet connection, but ChromeOS won't.

 

It's an interesting debate. I see both sides, and as we run some embarrassingly old iPads it's relevant to us - though they will keep working. Our Chromebooks have years left yet.

[FN-GM]

I'm fully aware of this, but with funding being hard to get having a device that was still working great in the environment then its a resource that sad to see no longer operate. The point is the way in which it's a hard lock out.

 

Shouldn't have to be EoL just because new OS/firmware is (not*) being released, but a nudge to be unsupported.

 

*edit

 

They shouldn’t have been bought them in the first place if the school isn’t prepared to accept they will be end of support on the date widely published.

Edited May 22, 2024 by FN-GM

[FN-GM]

it's the lack of communication

 

The end of support date was published before they were purchased… you can’t really complain here, anything beyond that date is a bonus. During this time you’re running the risk of security issues or the device’s ceasing to function. Thankfully it was the latter.

Edited May 22, 2024 by FN-GM

[Romantin]

That’s a bummer! We had something similar with our old Chromebooks a while back. Turns out, Google had indeed made some changes that affected older devices. It might be worth checking if they’ve dropped support or if there’s a firmware update you missed. Good luck, hope you get it sorted!

[thimon]

+1 for ChromeOS Flex.

[jthompson]

I can't see how Chrome OS Flex comes into it. Can that even be installed onto a Chromebook?

 

Also, it will likely run into the same kinds of issues, with certified models only being supported by Google up until their listed end date https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11513094. After that, it's running the same kind of risk as a Chromebook past its EOL.

[TomHutchinson]

Hi All,

 

I randomly turned on one of our devices that had stopped working, to find it was working again. Tried another 4 devices... all connect straight to wifi and updated their Google Workspace policies with the changes we've done since they've been off.

 

We never got time to dispose of ours over the summer, but this makes me glad.

 

(p.s. yes I know its not ideal as they are so old, and I'm still pushing management to invest in replacements but clearly this issue was either not Googles intensions or have reversed/fixed what caused them all to stop working abruptly)

[Primus]

Hi All,

 

I randomly turned on one of our devices that had stopped working, to find it was working again. Tried another 4 devices... all connect straight to wifi and updated their Google Workspace policies with the changes we've done since they've been off.

 

We never got time to dispose of ours over the summer, but this makes me glad.

 

(p.s. yes I know its not ideal as they are so old, and I'm still pushing management to invest in replacements but clearly this issue was either not Googles intensions or have reversed/fixed what caused them all to stop working abruptly)

 

I'd urge you not to start using them - if this wasn't a lesson in what happens when you use EoL kit that relies on the cloud I don't know what is.

[TomHutchinson]

Cheers for the urge.

[PotNoodleTech]

Managed to get rid of my prowise ones now. To the recyclers with you!!

 

Still got 50 dell ones that are out of support but on a much never version of O/S.

 

Mind you with school closing in 11 months theres somewhere between a zero and zero chance of me being allowed to replace them